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[Vector]

Don't worry, no one will mistake me ... when I want to listen to mass, I do it from the narthex. And I usually cry.

Similarly, I don't say I'm a Catholic outside of these kinds of religious discussions. Actually, people usually assume that I'm a Jew

[Th4DwArfY1]

I wouldn't! Largely because (to my knowledge) I've only met one Jew. And he was a lecturer.

[None]

Hey, people assumed I was a Jew back in high school! It was the hair, mostly, and a vague name relation to South Park.

This, unfortunately, led to relentless bullying, because kids are cruel and don't learn good lessons from South Park.

[Vector]

I have reddish-brown curly hair of the type that, on a white person, makes my own relatives go ". . . is that natural or did u perm it. Is it dyed"

I was actually shocked when I learned that blue and green eyes are so common in England. To me they seem very strange u_u And that many "normal" white people cannot really go out in direct sunlight even for a little walk.

But yes, maybe Jewish people are a lot more common in the US. Or maybe the bits of Yiddish and occasional observances of Jewish holidays make people feel safe? Who knows!

[None]

Oh, yeah, caveat- I'm not at all Jewish. I had to convince teachers that I, as an early teenage boy, did not get my hair permed. My peers just knew that hurting people was fun, so it didn't really matter one way or another. I was also an immature weirdo when I was young, so it's not really surprising that it happened to me in particular.

Good times, fond memories, depression/10.

[Th4DwArfY1]

My eye colour is possibly blue, possibly green, and there's brown around the pupil. I tend to say 'hazel' though honestly not sure if that's right.

Granted, I'm only 1/2 English.

[Frumple]

I do think some degree of jewish phenotype expression actually is fairly common stateside, for what it's worth. Not necessarily folks that consider themselves jewish or would be considered jewish, but has blood relation relatively close back that shows to some extent -- my grandmother's father was jewish, ferex, and having a 1/16th or 1/32nd or something seems pretty common.

Since I started letting my hair grow out, well over a decade ago, I occasionally get folks asking me if I'm an orthodox jew or something along those lines. I'm not (and my hair looks a lot more like it came from the native american side of things about as far back, tbh, especially before it started thinning/receeding), and if you pay much attention I don't really look it, but if you're not paying attention or looking from a distance, I sorta' do. It feels like it's a thing common enough it's not necessarily an oddity, at least in the parts of the US I've been to.

[scriver]

I think it's more that with the stronger Jewish presence in US media these appearances (which while more common in Jewish ethnicities are by no means Jew only things) has become to be galvanised as "Jewish" traits to the Americans even as they pop up in non-jewish European ethnicities. Whereas over on this side of the ditch (or at least in my Swedish experience) they're just considered ordinary if uncommon expressions of our ethnicities.

[LordBaal]

Jewish is both an ethnicity and a religion. So a jew mitgh not be jewish and a jewish is not necesarily jew?

Say that three times as fast as you can.

[martinuzz]

I'm a non-jewish dutch jew with high-blonde aryan looks, except for the brown-in-green-in-blue eyes.

[Quaksna]

I'm a non-jewish dutch jew with high-blonde aryan looks, except for the brown-in-green-in-blue eyes.

Die oorspronklike broer

Facial features within nations are interesting. Over here in Bohemia there's not much in common, there are some original Slavic features but we're kind of a crossroad between all different kinds of folks. Perhaps that's why we don't think about it too much, unless you're an obvious foreigner, mostly due to skin tone, you wouldn't stick out here, at least from what I've observed.

[Vector]

Yes, the one time I went to Europe it was like "Well, you're definitely European (not from the colonies) but not from this country. So which one is it?"

[scriver]

I've been identified as a Jew too in the past but I think it's because part of my last name is also shared with a a representative of a prolific Jewish association (it's not an otherwise "jewish" sounding ie jiddish ie steinberg type name) rather than my looks.

I've done some light research into the name and I can't find any other associations with it than Jewish ones. Which makes it possible that the ancestor who brought it over here (he was from Mecklenburg, Germany) was a Jew who became a swordsmaster and then was nobled for his accomplishments. Or at least descended and name-begotten from Jews. He'd probably have to convert at that point anyway if he (or his ancestors) hadn't before.

[Quaksna]

Someone asked me if I was a Jew once, and it was one of the funniest moments in my life - it was in elementary, whilw I had my rosary on me xD made my day.

Yeah people are pretty ignorant when it comes to this stuff over here. But that's quite understandable when you look at the history - first you have the hussites, then the catholic Austrian empire, then Nazi occupation, and at last, a communistic hellscape that banned outright everything. So yeah, when the standards were changing so fast, and the last thing people were told is that religion bad... It makes sense.

Also scriver you're hereby knighted a Sir. Sir Scriver has a nice ring to it.

[martinuzz]

I tend to describe myself as a 'Hitler-jew'.
If Hitler hadn't existed, I would most likely not even have known that I am jewish.

But since he did exist, and gassed, shot, and otherwise murdered more than 95% of my family 2 generations up and older, we were made quite aware that our mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother once registered herself as jewish in the Netherlands some 300 years ago. The religious part of being jewish was already abandoned by my great-grandparents.